swipes, like groom-porters and coal-heavers ? A pize upon me, if I don't have the key of the cellars, even if I cut it out from the twenty-fourth quilting of her flannel hips." He was hurrying away in furious dudgeon for the purpose of executing this threat, when Jocelyn interposed, and used every effort to allay his indignation, declaring that so far as himself was concerned, claret was no treat to one who had so lately come from France; that he had already drunk more than his usual quantity; and that he would much rather proceed to Brambletye House, which he had not yet visited, as he was anxious to ascertain the extent of the dilapidations, and consult with him respecting its repairs. With some difficulty he succeeded in persuading his father to abandon his hostile intentions, and accompany him to the devastated mansion; but during their walk he puffed, and snorted, and knit his brows, and angrily grasped his oaken staff, and gave vent to sundry epithets which we dare not venture to record, and more than once expressed his regret that he had not taken Jack Whittaker's advice in the first instance, and suffered him to give her a fair start with the cat-o'-nine-tails.

Too much irritated now to dream of concealing her ladyship's little foibles, he told Jocelyn that she sometimes actually got up in the middle of the night to pick his pockets of any money that accidentally came into his possession during the day, adding, that he had once baited his waistcoat with a gold jacobus,

and secretly set a snap rat-trap upon it, but that she had been cunning enough to carry it off without injury, though he still lived in hopes of shortening two or three of her fingers. During the whole of this narrative, he termed her the damned Juffrouw Weegschaal, a name which he invariably applied to her in his angry moods, either for the purpose of irritating her, or of affording a momentary gratification to himself, though it eventually aggravated his own bitter regret, that he should ever have been fool enough to transform so appropriate an appellation into the inconsistent title of Lady Compton.

On his arrival at the mansion, Jocelyn found it in a most forlorn and desolate condition. Although the roguish purchaser, as we have already stated, had only paid a deposit, and was absolved by the dissolution of the Protectoral Government from any legal claim for the remainder, he had not only refused to part with his prize, but proceeded rapidly to dismantle it; applying the materials to a house which he was constructing at a little distance. Part of the roof and of the floorings of the upper rooms had already been removed; and although application had already been made for an injunction, and further demolition had been thus arrested, he had succeeded, by interposing all the chicaneries of the Chancery, in retaining unjust possession of the premises. Most of the tenants, availing themselves of this double claim, refused to pay rent to either; but some from honesty, and their old attachment to Sir

John, regularly made their disbursements to him, or rather to his lady, who performed the functions of bailiff, steward, and chief manager. Jocelyn explored with great interest every chamber of the house in which he had been born and had passed all his earlier years; lingering for some time in the music gallery of the great hall, and contrasting the desolate appearance of the scene before him, abandoned to silence, cobwebs and decay, with the clamorous voices, furious faces, glittering armour, and levelled pistols of the Ironsides, when he had with such boyish temerity launched an arrow at their colonel. Nor could he, without a sigh, advert to the wretched fate of that individual, when he recollected his kind and courteous demeanour towards himself; and remembered, that with his characteristic courage, he had disdained to fly or conceal himself upon the Restoration. Sir John pointed out to his observation, how the sculptured acorns in the porch had been battered and bruised by the weapons of the Roundheads: vowing, that if he lived to renovate the mansion, he would have oakleaves and acorns carved upon every post; though he would leave those in the porch unrepaired, that he might never enter his house without a memento, to keep alive his hatred of the Puritans.

The wind went sobbing and sighing through the empty chambers, and as they quitted the mournful hall, the hollow echoes of their feet seemed to be the voice of lamentation at the desolate state

of the mansion, and a solemu appeal to its master to restore its former splendour. They next proceeded to the Friar's Copse, the scene of Jocelyn's boyish sports, amid whose lofty trees the rooks, wiser than the vain-glorious lords of creation, were quietly cawing as in the olden time; tending their nests, or pursuing their customary recreations, unaffected by the changes of dynasty, or the furious passions of the busy unfeathered bipeds, who were so perpetually wrangling for the possession of the earth beneath them.

"'Sblood! Jocelyn," cried Sir John, "let us push forward for the Swan, at Forest Hill, and take a cup of burnt claret or appled ale with the landlord, a merry old cock, and a staunch, and, I warrant me, crows as loud as the best, for he was ever a friend to Rowley, and must have had rare tippling o' late under his old ash-tree. Zooks! the fellow's voice is as clear as a bell, and he can troll aloud now many a ballad upon red-nosed Noll, which he was fain to whisper in corners before the day of Restoration and roasted Rumps."

Jocelyn suggested that it was getting late, and expressed a doubt whether his father's tender feet could carry him so far.

"Tush!" cried the Baronet, "my oaken staff will help me forward; this trusty old staff, which I cut with my own hand from the royal oak at Boscobel :-besides, the moon will be up presently, and I long to hear the rogue carol 'the Roundhead's

Race.' Ab, the lucky dog! he has got back his King, lost no estate, and won no damned Juffrouw Weegschaal. Come along, Jocelyn; gouty as I am sometimes, I can hold you a stout pull still."

So saying, he set forward towards the forest with a sturdy vigour, which would presently have brought him to his journey's end could he have continued it; but soon finding that he had materially overrated his strength, though by no means disposed to admit the fact, he stopped short; and after appearing to ponder for a moment, exclaimed :-"Zooks, Jocelyn, I've been thinking 'twould look shabby to go at this time o' night, as if we were afraid to show our faces in the sunshine; so we 'll put it off till to-morrow, and in the mean time we'll rest ourselves a bit under this oak-tree, for every true Cavalier loves an oak, and I see you begin to be tired."

Though this was by no means the case with Jocelyn, he willingly consented to the proposition; and they accordingly seated themselves under the tree which terminated a straggling thicket of the forest.

"Ah, Jocelyn!" cried Sir John, as he looked mournfully towards the mansion, of which only a dim outline was now perceptible. "There 's old Brambletye, but it looks as if it were quite dead. No lights in the windows; no smoke from the chimneys; no hunters in the stable; no claret in the cellar; and its roof off too, showing its poor